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Will be great to get some feedback. I'll start with what I think my worst form among exercies, BB bench as I started doing it few months ago (I prefer DBs).

A couple of reps @175lbs. I tend to arch my back, my butt comes off the bench a bit. I asked a couple of trainers at my gym before, they said my form is good.

As I suspected, very little thoracic extension and your elbows are well below your shoulder line, shifting almost all of the emphasis to your delt (..and taking the emphasis off of your pecs). Also, if you braced your posterior chain properly and contracted/flexed your abdominals, you wouldn't have the issue with arching your body (..causing your butt to leave the bench) and breaking form. It would also greatly improve your bench strength.

1- In order not to flare my elbows, I keep them under my shoulders based on what I read here and elsewhere. Do I need to keep my elbows tucked in but at the same line as my shoulders? I don't get this, not making sense to me. If you have a video that would be great.

2- Do you mean to tighten my posterior chain and contract my abs when I'm pressing?

3- What about my grip width? I put my ring fingers on BB's circle marks. Should I go wider/narrower?

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by M3Inline6

As I suspected, very little thoracic extension and your elbows are well below your shoulder line, shifting almost all of the emphasis to your delt (..and taking the emphasis off of your pecs). Also, if you braced your posterior chain properly and contracted/flexed your abdominals, you wouldn't have the issue with arching your body (..causing your butt to leave the bench) and breaking form. It would also greatly improve your bench strength.

1- In order not to flare my elbows, I keep them under my shoulders based on what I read here and elsewhere. Do I need to keep my elbows tucked in but at the same line as my shoulders? I don't get this, not making sense to me. If you have a video that would be great.

2- Do you mean to tighten my posterior chain and contract my abs when I'm pressing?

3- What about my grip width? I put my ring fingers on BB's circle marks. Should I go wider/narrower?

Thanks!

It's really hard to tell from the side, but I'll try my best to answer your questions:

Elbow flare is mainly addressed with elbow correction under load. Limb length should be the deciding factor on hand placement. I will be doing a video for you tomorrow.

Yes! Your body should be in a rigid isometric position during the entire press. A person should be able to apply some amount of force to your body and not disturb your position. Think about it from a martial arts perspective; that may help you better understand what I mean.

Without being able to see where you're gripping the bar, I can't say whether or not you need to widen or narrow (..but your elbows are dropping far too low below your shoulder line Ziggy z00)!

It's really hard to tell from the side, but I'll try my best to answer your questions:

Elbow is flare is mainly addressed with elbow correction under load. Limb length should be the deciding factor on hand placement. I will be doing a video for you tomorrow.

Yes! Your body should be in a rigid isometric position during the entire press. A person should be able to apply some amount of force to your body and not disturb your position. Think about it from a martial arts perspective; that may help you better understand what I mean.

Without being able to see where you're gripping the bar, I can't say whether or not you need to widen or narrow (..but your elbows are dropping far too low below your shoulder line Ziggy z00)!

The hip just moves as I balance my body with my heels. Hopefully once I see Steve's video I'll get the gist of it. Funny part, the same thing happens with incline DBs presses but I can minimize hip movement due to incline position.

A trick I found to help keep my core tight and make it difficult to hump the air your feet. Steve may have actually told me this one, but if you keep your feet completely FLAT on the floor, and tuck them as far back towards you as possible while maintaining that flat footedness, if helps keep everything nice and tight. Also, I found it builds tension, like potential energy kind of tension that naturally causes an upwards motion, aka the bench press! When I do this I just feel like, spring loaded to shoot that bar to the moon. You should give this a try and see how it feels. Its a bit awkward at first, but I've settled in nicely.

Every bench set for me:
-Attain grip position (pinkies on the ring for me)

-pull chest to bar and pinch shoulder blades together, locking them in and setting myself back down (keep them locked through lift)

-arch back, feet will be pulled closer to your head, your knees will be below your waist line and toes(balls of your feet) will be touching (this eliminates any butt lift, you cant lift your ass even if you tried in this position if you are doing it right)

-hold air in chest (still breathing though!) bring bar down to sternum line controlled, drive through the balls of your feet, through your lats, and through your chest. (YES! this is a full body excercise!) Keep your core and locked shoulder blades tight!

Flat back, flat footed benching is only asking for future shoulder problems. The best videos I've seen that accurately depict how to bench properly are the "so you think you can bench" series.

Every bench set for me:
-Attain grip position (pinkies on the ring for me)

-pull chest to bar and pinch shoulder blades together, locking them in and setting myself back down (keep them locked through lift)

-arch back, feet will be pulled closer to your head, your knees will be below your waist line and toes(balls of your feet) will be touching (this eliminates any butt lift, you cant lift your ass even if you tried in this position if you are doing it right)

-hold air in chest (still breathing though!) bring bar down to sternum line controlled, drive through the balls of your feet, through your lats, and through your chest. (YES! this is a full body excercise!)

Flat back, flat footed benching is only asking for future shoulder problems. The best videos I've seen that accurately depict how to bench properly are the "so you think you can bench" series.

this is exactly what I do. It is funny that you put it this way (with the balls of the feet) because I was thinking I wasn't flexible enough to place my feet flat (which I thought was imperative) but I went with it anyways. Good writeup

this is exactly what I do. It is funny that you put it this way (with the balls of the feet) because I was thinking I wasn't flexible enough to place my feet flat (which I thought was imperative) but I went with it anyways. Good writeup

I have really messed up ankles from playing goalie (hockey) so I don't have much flexibility in them either. I think as long as you are driving from the floor for power you are fine! (I'm imagining what it would be like to drive from heels if I could, it seems impossible given the positioning of the knees and arched back).

I have really messed up ankles from playing goalie (hockey) so I don't have much flexibility in them either. I think as long as you are driving from the floor for power you are fine! (I'm imagining what it would be like to drive from heels if I could, it seems impossible given the positioning of the knees and arched back).

I have watched all parts of "so you think you can bench" series before. I learned a lot from it (eyes level, not to flare shoulders, etc...). I tried pressing with ball of my foot, but my quads get tense and numb which causes me to lose focus from my pecs. Using my heel works better for me. I naturally tend to arch my back as it feels better.

The one thing I did not do was keeping my posterior chain tight. Between these tips and the video Steve will upload hopefully I'll improve my form.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DILLA

Every bench set for me:
-Attain grip position (pinkies on the ring for me)

-pull chest to bar and pinch shoulder blades together, locking them in and setting myself back down (keep them locked through lift)

-arch back, feet will be pulled closer to your head, your knees will be below your waist line and toes(balls of your feet) will be touching (this eliminates any butt lift, you cant lift your ass even if you tried in this position if you are doing it right)

-hold air in chest (still breathing though!) bring bar down to sternum line controlled, drive through the balls of your feet, through your lats, and through your chest. (YES! this is a full body excercise!) Keep your core and locked shoulder blades tight!

Flat back, flat footed benching is only asking for future shoulder problems. The best videos I've seen that accurately depict how to bench properly are the "so you think you can bench" series.

I have watched all parts of "so you think you can bench" series before. I learned a lot from it (eyes level, not to flare shoulders, etc...). I tried pressing with ball of my foot, but my quads get tense and numb which causes me to lose focus from my pecs. Using my heel works better for me. I naturally tend to arch my back as it feels better.

The one thing I did not do was keeping my posterior chain tight. Between these tips and the video Steve will upload hopefully I'll improve my form.

driving through the heels will make it much easier to drive through your rear leg muscles, through the lats and then through the chest. I just physically can't. I tried yesterday and can't position myself to the point where my heels are touching and when I drive through my butt will stay on the bench when I drive through.

Maybe a wider leg stance?

This is how my body is when I bench, notice heels aren't down. (not me in pic) butt is down.

wider leg stance, heels are down, crappy pic, but you get the idea. (again, not me)